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In the hallway outside her dressing room at the Broadway Theatre, Christiani Pitts, the star of the new blockbuster production of “King Kong,” has hung framed photographs of a collection of actresses and comedians from the 1930s, who serve as both a welcome into her space and a guiding light for her performance onstage.
Most notable of the bunch is Moms Mabley, who Pitts learned of as she was researching her role as Ann Darrow in the legend, which opens tonight on Broadway. “I didn’t know that there were female comedians or black female comedians in the Thirties; I had no idea,” Pitts says.
Pitts, who is the first actor of color to take on the role of Ann Darrow, has turned her dressing room into a world of her own. The room is draped in dusty pink furniture with touches of gold accents; a fish — named Fishy — holds residency on one of the shelves. Pitts greets each of her visitors with a hug, and two more upon departing, as she welcomes them into the space she’s created for herself.
The role of Ann Darrow, though she didn’t know it at the time, was just what she had been praying for,